Temple Bar's design for life
There was an audible gasp 10 days ago at the national housing conference in Galway when officials from the Department of the Environment revealed that 18,000 bungalows - 40% of the republic's new dwellings - were built in the countryside last year. Whether you are inclined to see this as an unsustainable, design-free "bungalow blitz" or the working through of de Valera's dream of "a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads", is irrelevant. The young of the country are voting with their feet, often on cost grounds but also because of the absence of credible residential alternatives that can support a sustainable way of life in towns and cities.
